"Remix" Reading and Response

In the introduction to his book Remix, Lawrence Lessig discusses the repercussions that the “copyright wars” have had on creative work. Lessig explains that artistic appropriation of copyrighted material does not cause financial damage to copyright holders in the way that blatant sharing of the original works can do, but lawyers police all infractions as a matter of principle. Stephanie Lenz’s seemingly innocent home video of her dancing baby, which has a copyrighted song playing on the radio in the background, was targeted by lawyers, but even more derivative artistic work has been stifled by copyright laws. Lessig shares examples of artistic work which has been challenged, such as Candice Breitz’s exhibitions featuring videos of many music fans singing songs from their favorite artists, or the illegally remixed music produced by artist Gregg Gillis. They have all attempted to use and build upon copyrighted music with varying degrees of impediment and legal repercussion.

                Lessig feels that appropriation of copyrighted music is beneficial. The resources copyright holders and their lawyers spend in pursuit of making examples out of these artistic works are grossly misused. Artists have found non-licensed creative remixing to be somewhat revolutionary. Artist SilviaO found that the remixes of her Creative Commons licensed a cappella tracks gave the sound “new meaning”, as Lessig describes. Breitz explained that her work was “never thought of as. . . stealing. . .[but] the natural way in which culture evolves and develops and moves forward”, adding that it is a “new layer of interpretation”.

                I am inclined to agree with Lessig. Although it is important that copyright holders are not deprived of income, artistic use is not likely to be a major source of financial damage. The creativity and ingenuity of remixed works is valuable, and provides a medium for cultural critique and exploration that should not be stifled. Some very popular music and artistic work can become so well known that it becomes part of our culture, like Any Warhol’s Campbell Soup cans, and inevitably become subject to heavy interpretation in doing so.

                This article reminded me of some of the remixed songs I have seen on YouTube, and I have two to share. One is a combination of popular country western songs which pokes fun at a “winning formula” in country songs, filling one of art’s vital roles as a medium for cultural critique. Another is a remix of Walt Disney Studios’  Alice in Wonderland that I think is quite beautiful. I don’t know the stories behind either of these videos, but I imagine that they were not produced with legal permission.